Samantha Fulnecky wrote an essay for a psychology class debunking the idea that men can identify as women. She cited Bible passages to make her argument.
But it turns out her instructor at the University of Oklahoma was in fact a transgender individual – Mel Curth uses she/they pronouns.
Samantha wrote that she did not believe in transgenderism because God made us to be either male or female. She said society was pushing a lie that was demonic and severely harmful to American young people.
“I personally believe that eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God’s original plan for humans.” She also wrote that she “strongly” disagreed with the idea that “encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence,” calling it a “lie that there are multiple genders.”
The instructor said her paper was offensive and lacked empirical evidence.
Curth gave Samantha a failing grade on the assignment – prompting all sorts of national outrage and an official investigation by the University of Oklahoma.
“Samantha Fulnecky is an American hero. She stood firm in her faith despite the radical attacks from the Marxist professors at the University of Oklahoma. The OU staff involved should be immediately fired and OU should not be receiving taxpayer dollars if they continue their assaults on faith. The war on Christianity is real, and we will not be silenced,” said former Oklahoma State Supt. Ryan Walters.
Gov. Kevin Stitt called the incident deeply disturbing and a number of lawmakers demanded that the University of Oklahoma intervene.
Yet, a number of people in the state sided with the graduate assistant instructor.
The OU graduate-student Senate resolution called Fulnecky’s essay “intentionally inflammatory and hateful” and declared that Curth “was fully justified in assigning a failing grade to the assignment.”
Television station KSWO reports that Conner Tranquill, the chairman of the Oklahoma Federation of College Republicans, also defended the instructor, writing on X:
The academic quality of the essay written by Samantha Fulnecky is indefensible, and the professor’s failing grade is demonstrably correct. For TPUSA’s OU chapter to elevate this poorly written paper suggests a serious lapse in judgment. The essay not only fails to meet basic college requirements—such as citing its primary source, the Bible—but fundamentally misses the assignment’s objective.
This episode is a characteristic political misstep that risks harming the credibility of conservative student organizations. The lesson is paramount: focus on academic excellence, utilize scholarly sources, and meet the professor’s demands. We should be engaging in substantive intellectual battles, not generating outrage over an earned poor grade. We are not the party of participation trophies. Do the work and earn the grade, or fail on the merits.
The University of Oklahoma’s investigation concluded Instructor Curth was arbitrary in grading Samantha’s paper.
“The University of Oklahoma believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards,” OU said in a statement. “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think. The University will continue to review best practices to ensure that its instructors have the comprehensive training necessary to objectively assess their students’ work without limiting their ability to teach, inspire, and elevate our next generation.”
Anyone who rejects basic biological realities has no place working at a taxpayer-funded university. And anyone who uses their position of authority to bully Christian students must be banished from taxpayer-funded classrooms.
And the University of Oklahoma announced that the instructor will no longer have instructional duties at the school. To borrow a phrase from President Trump, “You’re fired!”